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Rhea Munro interview with Liverpool Echo
Rhea Munro is one of the our city's bright young things; she has recently qualified as a solicitor and now has her dream job with one of Merseyside's most respected law firms, Brown Turner Ross. At just 26, Rhea has a promising career ahead of her in a job that is not for the faint hearted.
"I work in the litigation department which means that every day is different for me, my job entails many different activities such as preparing court work, attending court with clients, liaising with clients and planning cases. My job also requires a lot of administrative tasks, namely dealing with post and telephone calls."
Law was not always at the forefront of Rhea's mind, as a school leaver she wanted to go into writing of some kind, and went straight to Winstanley College in Orrell to complete her A Levels.
"My tutor at college was the first person to suggest this career, he persuaded me to go off to university and study Law as he thought it would suit me. Law was never the path I initially thought I would go down; I really enjoyed my degree and found I had a natural talent for law; my first job was working as a graduate clerk in a different law firm"
A degree alone is not enough to become a Solicitor; the next stage is the legal practice course which can take up to two years. The final stage is completion of a training contract, which is two years practice based training in a law firm.
"I started my Legal Practice Course part time in the evenings at BPP Law School in Manchester, which was a two year course. I was doing this whilst working full time, the juggling was all good practice for my current role. In 2006 I got a training contract at Brown Turner Ross, I came on initially as a graduate clerk and continued my Legal Practice Course in the evenings, which I completed 2007.
The next stage was my training contract; it is notoriously difficult to get a training contract as they are really sought after, so I was quite lucky. My previous legal experience as a clerk allowed me to finish my training in a year and a half, instead of the usual two years."
A firm believer in a healthy body means a healthy mind, Rhea enjoys keeping fit and enjoys an active social life.
"I generally try to keep fit. I love spending my weekends catching up with my friends and sampling Liverpool's excellent nightlife. On a completely different note, I felt like doing something completely different, so I have just gone back to my old high school to start Spanish lessons in the evenings."
Rhea has faced many challenges on her road to qualifying as a solicitor, studying in the evening and then the added pressures and responsibilities that come with qualifying can mount up to a huge workload, with many challenges and highlights along the way.
"As I have only just qualified, I would say the highlight of my career so far has been just that, it has been a long road, especially studying in the evening in Manchester, whilst working full time in Southport and Liverpool. It was an important personal achievement for me; elation would be an understatement at how I felt."
A career in law is not easily achievable, but hard work will pay off as Rhea knows only too well.
"The secret to my success is working hard and being able to manage my workload. One piece of advice I could give is to genuinely care about your clients and the work you do for them, going to work with a fire in your belly and don't be afraid to have a laugh to lighten up your days."